


Hamlet reads Hamlet

by xslytherclawx



Category: No. 6 (Anime & Manga), No. 6 - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:36:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xslytherclawx/pseuds/xslytherclawx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The other mice think Hamlet has gone mad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hamlet reads Hamlet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crowmunculus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowmunculus/gifts).



> note that in this version, Tsukiyo is referred to as "Moonlight"  
> Soliloquy and scene from Hamlet Act 3, scene i.  
> Also part of the exchange gift from 2011 for Crowmunculus.

It was a fairly boring day, all in all. Well, for the mice, at least. Who knew what Nezumi and Sion were getting up to? The mice didn't really care, to be honest, as long as they came home safe. Hamlet was scurrying about amongst the books, and, when he returned to where Moonlight and Cravat had been, they had vanished. He sniffed, trying to locate them, to no avail. Set in his misery (he did have a penchant for tragedies, after all), he began to squeak.

Well, to a human it would have sounded like squeaking, but Hamlet was really reciting a soliloquy.

> “To be, or not to be: That is the question:
> 
> Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
> 
> The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
> 
> Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
> 
> And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep –
> 
> No more – and by a sleep to say we end
> 
> The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
> 
> That flesh is heir to! 'Tis a consummation
> 
> Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep...”

 At this point Cravat had found his way to where Hamlet was... well, sounding a bit mental, at least to the other mouse's ears. What in the world was he doing? It should be mentioned, at this point, that Cravat didn't particularly like Shakespeare, and, as such, never bothered to remember the lines. Therefore, he took Hamlet's (the mouse) recitation of Hamlet (the character's) soliloquy to be a sign of malfunctioning software.

Much to Cravat's dismay, Hamlet only continued: 

> “To sleep – perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
> 
> For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
> 
> When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
> 
> Must give us pause. There's the respect
> 
> That makes calamity of so long life:
> 
> For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
> 
> The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
> 
> The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
> 
> The insolence of office, and the spurns
> 
> That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
> 
> When he himself might his quietus make
> 
> With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
> 
> To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
> 
> But that the dread of something after death,
> 
> The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
> 
> No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
> 
> And makes us rather bear those ills we have
> 
> Than fly to others that we know not of?”

 Cravat was now certain that Hamlet's software was indeed malfunctioning, and considered if he should step in to suggest that he ask Nezumi to check him. However, Moonlight was nowhere to be found, and Cravat was a bit afraid to question the other mouse alone; after all, he thought that Hamlet had gone mad!

> “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, 
> 
> And thus the native hue of resolution
> 
> Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
> 
> And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
> 
> With this regard their currents turn awry,
> 
> And lose the name of action.”

At this point, much to Cravat's relief, Moonlight returned.

> “--Soft you now!
> 
> The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
> 
> Be all my sins remember'd.”

Cravat quietly squeaked an explanation to the black mouse, and confided his fears for Hamlet's software.

“I'll take care of it,” Moonlight assured him, scampering up to Hamlet. “Are you okay? What are you doing?”

> “I humbly thank you; well, well, well.”

Moonlight tilted his head to one side, confused. Cravat seemed to have a point. “Is something wrong with your software?”

> “No, not I,
> 
> I never gave you aught.”

What was he talking about? Moonlight beckoned for Cravat to join him. After some hesitation, the other mouse came up behind Moonlight. “What's wrong with him? Is it a software problem? Should we go find Nezumi to ask him?” Cravat squeaked.

Hamlet looked at Cravat curiously. 

> “Ha, ha! are you honest?”

Cravat was now honestly afraid for the other mouse. “What are you talking about?”

> “Are you fair?”

Moonlight turned to Cravat. “How long has he been like this?”

Cravat tilted his head. “Not very long, I think.”

Hamlet continued to have what appeared to be half of a conversation:

> ”That if you be honest and fair, your honesty shouldadmit no discourse to your beauty.”

Cravat noticed that the rhythm had changed, and turned to Moonlight. “His rhythm's changed. I think he's getting worse!”

Hamlet merely continued:

> “Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into hislikeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.”

“Love who?” Moonlight squeaked. “Who is he talking to?”

“There's something wrong with his software! He must be seeing things!”

Hamlet's mood seemed to change into one of anger:

> “You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.”

“Moonlight, you should go find Nezumi,” Cravat implored.

Hamlet turned to them, angry: 

> “Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that itwere better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.Where's your father?”

“What are you talking about, Hamlet? What's wrong with your software?” Moonlight asked.

> “Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.” 

He turned to scurry off, but turned around as Moonlight went to leave. 

> “If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to anunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,and quickly too. Farewell.”

Moonlight was confused. He was going to get Nezumi, but Hamlet had only turned around to tell him to leave? There was definitely something wrong with the other mouse's software. Cravat had been right. “I'm going to get Nezumi!” he announced.

> “I have heard of your paintings, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig and you amble, and you lisp; you nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made me mad. I say we will have no moe marriages: those that are married already – all but one – shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go,”

Moonlight shot off to find Nezumi. This was really too much for him; surely Nezumi would know how to fix him. He had programmed him, after all. He only hoped that Hamlet wasn't beyond all hope of repair. He was rather fond of his micely friends, and would be very sorry to see any of them be deactivated.

Once Moonlight was far gone, Hamlet turned to Cravat. “What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost!”

“What's wrong with _me_? What was wrong with _you?_ ”

Hamlet stood up on his back paws, offended. “I was _acting_.”

**Author's Note:**

> the excerpts from Hamlet are, of course, not of my creation.


End file.
